For more than 30 years I taught thousands of university students about law, focusing on law in the U.S. They were undergraduate and graduate students, many aiming at careers in law or law enforcement, others simply interested in various topics such as crime and criminal justice.
A point about American law that I emphasized was that it was key to holding this diverse nation together. Separated by so many factors–socioeconomic classes, religious
faiths, urban and rural residences, age groups, racial and ethnic backgrounds, political views–Americans, I proclaimed, were nonetheless stably bonded by their shared belief in law.
In particular, I emphasized that we all shared a strong cultural commitment to our legal system’s founding documents: the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. There we find our collective commitments in our beliefs in our Natural Rights to Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness, and equal opportunity, as well as to the structures of government carefully designed to preserve these.
Sisters and Brothers, I was wrong about the law. But not about the nation. Continue reading “I Was Wrong About The Law”
